


A Stitch Here and There

by Milksapphire



Category: Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 14:42:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29577684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milksapphire/pseuds/Milksapphire
Summary: Xena is hard to shop for, especially when it's her birthday, so Gabrielle decides to make a gift for her warrior and destroys her fingers in the process.
Relationships: Gabrielle/Xena
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	A Stitch Here and There

**Author's Note:**

> Not my usual type of work, but it's 1AM and here we are lol.

Tomorrow is the day.

Tomorrow is her day.

Or so, as Xena would say, tomorrow is a day she’d like to forget.

For the last three days, Gabrielle kept her distance. Well, she kept reminding herself to stay quiet, but lately, she’d been having trouble keeping her mouth shut. Sure, when she was younger, she’d have no problem spewing nonsense from her mouth, but that was so long ago. It felt like eons since that naïve time in her life. She built a life with this woman—this woman who was once feared by everyone.

They had their disagreements and quarrels, but somehow, they were able to run towards the light. They were resilient. Gabrielle knew when not to test Xena’s patience, and gods, sometimes, that woman had such little patience. For one of the best warriors Gabrielle had ever known, she would’ve thought Xena’d have more patience.

But she deduced the simmering temper to Xena’s unguarded emotions at times. She was lucky enough to catch the warrior in moments of weakness and tackle those sweltering thoughts and beleaguered feelings. And now, she’d like to believe that she knew Xena best—as best as she could anyway. They knew everything about each other. Six years now. That’s a long time.

And since Gabrielle knew her best, she also knew the _one_ day that Xena despised and never spoke of as if it were some vile sin.

Her birthday.

Oh, she wasn’t going to get off that easy. The topic had been ignored for the last few years, and with her fine investigative skills, Gabrielle was able to figure out exactly when Xena’s birthday was.

And it was tomorrow.

Gabrielle sat by the fire, sewing or attempting to. She worked nonstop for the last four days on this gift, and she wanted it to be perfect. With several pricked fingertips, she would make sure that she finished this present in time for Xena’s birthday.

As she pricked her finger with the leather needle, she hissed. “How does she stitch so quickly and with such…” she suckled her finger, “ _ease_!”

Xena rustled through the bushes and pulled a tree branch out from her path. She saw Gabrielle scurry and tuck an item into the satchel. She raised an eyebrow, making her way around the campfire to tend to Argo.

“What’re you doing?”

Gabrielle wiped the blood on her skirt and looked back, smiling. “Just waiting for you to come back.”

Xena stroked her horse’s muzzle, giving her partner a wary side-eye glance. “Uh-huh. I checked the area, and there isn’t a soul in sight. It might be a few days before we reach a village.”

“Hmm, yeah, you know, I’m not familiar with this area.”

Gabrielle sat on her hand, hiding her punctured fingers. She received another odd stare, and all she could do was grin from ear to ear. Thankfully, she wasn’t the brunt of a witty comeback after that stupid comment of _unfamiliarity_. She scooted along the blanket and watched Xena clean up their campsite.

Crouched down, Xena poked the fire, attempting to anger the flames. Her eyes drifted over, and she wore a crooked smile.

“You’re awfully quiet.”

Gabrielle’s chest tightened, and she rubbed her throat. “Quiet? I’m not quiet.”

“You’ve hardly said a word since we made camp.” Xena snorted and sat down opposite the anxious blonde. “What’s on your mind?”

“N-nothing…”

Xena gave a slow head nod and began taking off her chest plate. Unbuckling the clasps from behind, she paid no mind to Gabrielle’s odd behavior. Soon, she found a pair of hands helping her take off the heavy chest plate. Smiling softly, she grabbed her hair, coiling it over her shoulder. As she felt the weight of her armor lift off her shoulders, she let out a relieving sigh.

With closed eyes, she felt a hand massaging her neck and bit her bottom lip. Opening her eyes, she peered over at Gabrielle’s hand and noticed several nicks and marks on her fingers.

“Gabrielle!” she snatched the blonde’s hand, examining the mangled fingers. “What is this? What…what happened? Your fingers…” her eyes widened at the numerous wounds.

She had to think of a quick excuse, but would it be a feasible one? Probably not to Xena, but she had to try.

“I was sharpening my Sais.”

Xena snapped her head around, drawing-in her eyebrows. “Sharpening your Sais.”

“Mhm…”

Now, if I could just get my hand back, Gabrielle thought. She tried yanking her hand back, but Xena gripped tighter.

“You know better than to lie to me. What kind of excuse is that?” Xena grumbled. “ _Sharpening_ _my_ _Sais_ ,” she mocked, splaying her fingers over her partner’s hand.

Sighing, she added, “hand me the satchel. I’ll bandage your fingers for you.”

At that moment, Gabrielle inwardly panicked. There was no possible way she could run, as that would look suspicious and downright ridiculous.

“Xena, really, it’s okay. My hand is fine.”

“Oh yeah?” Xena pointed to the bloodied hand. “Give me the satchel, come on,” she wagged her fingers.

Eyeing the satchel, she could either run for it or come clean. Xena was going to see everything. She couldn’t hide it anymore. This was supposed to be a _surprise_. Gabrielle kept her eyes glued to the satchel and then felt the grip on her hand stiffen.

“Gabrielle. The satchel.”

Groaning, Xena crawled on her knees and snatched the satchel while mumbling under her breath. She sat down with her legs crossed and dug through the bag, searching for bandages. As she stuck her finger inside, she pricked her finger on something sharp.

Hissing, she carefully took out the item that so rudely stabbed her. She held the needle and slowly turned her gaze towards her sheepish partner. Lifting an eyebrow, she twirled the needle around with her thumb and forefinger.

Clearing her throat, she said through a sly smile, “what’s _this_?”

“I think you know what a needle is, Xena,” she let out a stilted chuckle.

“If you needed me to stitch something for you, all you had to do was _ask_. No need to hurt yourself,” Xena teased and set the needle aside.

As she dug through the bag, she pulled out a long piece of fabric. It was like a never-ending trail of flowy fabric, and she frowned, finally holding its entirety in her lap. She examined the cream-colored blouse with red stitching along the cuffs, breast, and collar.

She puckered her lips, flipping the blouse over several times until she finally met Gabrielle’s large apprehensive eyes.

“If you’re thinking of changing your wardrobe, I’m not sure if this is a good look for you, Gabrielle.” She said, chuckling under her breath. “But, it’s not bad. I prefer what you’re wearing now, though,” she winked.

Gabrielle slapped her hands over her eyes, groaning.

“What? Okay, the stitching could use some work, but we can fix that. You’re not that great at…” she paused, gazing at her partner’s evident frustration. “What’s the matter? The stitching isn’t _that_ bad,” she tried to cover her tracks. “I’ve seen worse.”

“Xena!” she slapped her hands on her knees. “It’s not for me! It’s for _you_!”

Those blue eyes fluttered, and her mouth parted.

“Oh.”

She held the blouse up to the sunlight and took in the surprise offering in a different light. She tucked the blouse to her chest, and leaned in close, and kissed Gabrielle’s cheek.

“Thank you. Interesting choice…” she neatly set aside the blouse atop the satchel. “I don’t know where I’d wear it.”

Gabrielle frowned and folded her arms. “I know that you liked the clothes we wore in Arabia. I thought you might like it.”

Xena’s cheeks reddened. “Ah…yes, I _did_ like those clothes. They were more comfortable than this,” she tugged on her leather strap. “Thank you, Gabrielle. It’s very thoughtful of you, but…what’s the occasion?”

The blonde’s throat closed up, and she held her breath. She couldn’t hide it any longer, nor would she try to. Instead, a big grin encompassed her entire face, and she inched closer, touching foreheads with the warrior. This brought an uncertain smile to Xena’s lips.

“Happy…birthday!”

In an instant, Gabrielle was shoved backward, and she laughed as she rolled over onto her back. She stared up at the fuming warrior and tried to dash off the blanket. Leather pressed onto her bodice, and bare abdomen as the irate blue eyes bore down on her. Her laughter ceased, and she loudly cleared her throat.

“We’re not doing this. You tried this two years ago. Not _again_.”

Gabrielle chuckled, “come on! What’s the big deal about your birthday? Don’t you like my _gift_?”

Xena squeezed her partner’s cheeks together with her fingers. “You really know all the right buttons to push, don’t you?”

Gabrielle grabbed a handful of raven locks and brought Xena’s lips to her already-puckered lips. The fingers, once rigid and firm, loosened and cupped her cheek. They pulled their lips apart from one another, and Gabrielle smiled, grazing her thumb over the warrior’s upper lip.

“Happy birthday,” she whispered.

The corner of Xena’s mouth quirked upward. “Nice save.”

“Hey, you never answered me!”

Xena’s eyebrows crinkled, expressing the sweetest look of worry Gabrielle had ever seen.

“Do you like my gift?”


End file.
